Do you know what RPE is?
Rate of Perceived Exertion. It’s a number from 1 to 10. A scale that describes how hard a workout feels.
It is one way to gauge the difficulty of the physical task you’re trying to accomplish. It’s useful because it gives us a common language to talk about workouts. Without it, everyone would say things like “That was really hard” and it would mean something different for each person. Conversely, when you see a workout in your app or on a class whiteboard, a common language like RPE helps tell you what you should expect to feel on this workout.
Here’s the RPE scale for conditioning workouts:
| Scale | Description |
|---|---|
| 1 | Very easy activity. Almost no effort required, one step above walking watching TV on your couch. |
| 2-3 | Easy activity. You can maintain a full conversation with easy breathing and feel like you can keep it up for hours. Think leisurely walk around the block. |
| 4-5 | Moderately easy activity. Some effort required, heart rate is slightly up and your breathing is starting to accelerate. But you can still hold a conversation. Think low intensity stationary bike while FaceTiming your friend. |
| 6 | Moderately difficult activity. Your breathing is accelerating and you’re breaking a sweat. You can hold a conversation but it takes effort and you have to break it up to catch your breath. The physical task requires focus. Think 3-5 mile jog. |
| 7 | Difficult activity. You can sneak a sentence here and there, but you’re generally breathing hard. Your heart rate is in the 120-150 range and you are sweating. Think Kettlebell Swing + Jump Rope + Burpees circuit for 15 mins. |
| 8 | Very hard. No talking possible, your breathing is fast and your heart rate is in the 150-180 range. You can only keep this up for a few minutes. |
| 9 | Extremely hard. No a word can be said, your heart rate is 185+ and you can only keep this up for 2 minutes or less. |
| 10 | Maximum effort. Can only be maintained for 30 seconds or less, and requires that you give it everything you have. |
What about lifting weights? The RPE scale applies!
| Scale | Description |
|---|---|
| 1 | Very easy. Moving your body from one room to another. |
| 2-3 | Easy. Bodyweight warmup reps at slow speed. |
| 4-5 | Moderately easy. Warmup weights, can do 15+ reps and have plenty left in the tank. |
| 6 | Moderately difficult. Challenging yard work, lifting a weight for 10-12 reps and having 5+ reps left in the tank. |
| 7 | Difficult. You can still demonstrate speed and great form in your reps . Your last 2 reps slow down but you have a 3-4 reps left in the tank when you’re done. |
| 8 | Very difficult. You start to lose speed but your form is still good. You feel like you have a couple of reps left in the tank. |
| 9 | Extremely difficult. Your reps are slow and you are a little afraid you might not make the last 1-2 reps. But when you finish you feel like you have 1 rep left in you. |
| 10 | Max effort. Any set to failure – 1-rep max, or a 3-rep max or max reps at any load. The point is to feel like you had nothing left in you. Not a single extra rep. |
Now you can start to use this scale for your own training. Look for RPE suggestions in the workouts!
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